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Arc-Twil
Arc-Twil is the shortened name of the unofficial cabal more "officially" known as Arcane's Twilight in reference to their goal of removing Ealdremen's perceived overreliance on Chrono and other forms of arcane magic. It is thought that their nickname is meant to deliberately call to mind Dei-Fed, a respected organization throughout Ealdremen. Arc-Twil, however, does not study Chrono so much as it seeks to find alternatives to it, most commonly by drawing on extraplanar outsiders from the Outsider Plane. Because of their connection to extraplanar creatures, Zoarai has some overlap with Arc-Twil, but the two groups are officially separated, and membership of one does not guarantee affiliation with the other. More specifically, Zoarai seeks to only obtain the knowledge held by outsiders, whereas Arc-Twil sees outsiders as the solution to not using Chrono. According to Arc-Twil's beliefs, Chrono is a dangerous substance to mortals; more "liberal"-minded members of Arc-Twil regard it as a crude, inefficient, and primitive form of power that no one has sought an alternative to despite it being so outdated and hazardous. Arcane-addling is commonly cited as an example of why Chrono is too dangerous for mortals to continue using as much as they do now. The more extremist Arc-Twil members, though, believe Chrono never should have been used at all, and they see modern disciplines of arcane spellcasting as blights upon Ealdremen that will bring about its ruin. Such people tend to believe that the Godbomb occurred because Chrono-powered technology was so common during the preceding Millennial Calm that it threw the galaxy into imbalance, but the survivors of the event ascribed the event to the revenge of gods instead due to misunderstanding (or willfully disbelieving) what they had seen. Arc-Twil's members are often called warlocks or witches for drawing on most often dark patrons; rarely do they directly summon forth these outsiders, unlike Zoarai members. They form pacts and essentially summon forth the power into themselves. In the most extreme of circumstances, Arc-Twil's members might even display physical characteristics of the outsiders they derive their power from, and the organization does promote the belief that becoming such a being would be preferable to using Chrono as they are now. After all, outsiders do not become arcane-addled, and they do not destroy environments through abuse of Chrono. Instead, because they so natively can control all forms of arcane magic and can use its beneficial effects without actually casting spells, they can still reap the benefits of spells without any of the drawbacks. The vast majority of countries throughout Ealdremen do not recognize Arc-Twil as a legitimate organization because of the stigma associated with calling on outsiders' power in lieu of conventional forms of magic. Warlocks, after all, do not conjure and control creatures as in the conjuration school of magic that the more-accepted summoners use. Instead, warlocks are more associated with trying to become that source of extraplanar might themselves -- a dangerous notion expressly forbidden in places that fear the rise of people like Arc-Twil into power. Further discrediting Arc-Twil's credibility is their view of history, specifically around the Godbomb, being markedly different from what is commonly accepted throughout Ealdremen; this leads to those aware of them writing them off as mere conspiracy theorists trying to justify their own form of "dangerous magic". Although the country's government denies it, the nation of Jaquén is thought to be a collaborator and funder of Arc-Twil's research. Jaquén's control over outsiders in lieu of using conventional forms of Chrono to do mundane, routine work has a great deal of similarities with Arc-Twil's stated mission of using outsider-related research to replace Chrono outright. Category:Ealdremen Groups Category:Ealdremen Magic Category:No Spoilers